Garuda Group And Pelita Air Mergers, Air Ticket Prices Don't Drop

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Arya Sinulingga spoke about the impact of the Garuda group merger or merger plan and Pelita Air. He said the merger would not make plane tickets down.

As is known, the plan to merge PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk and its subsidiary Citilink Indonesia with Pelita Air was first disclosed by SOE Minister Erick Thohir.

"Yes, no. It's impossible. Because the class is definitely different," said Arya at the Ministry of SOEs, Jakarta, Friday, August 25.

Arya said the planned merger is still under discussion. This includes ticket prices and determining what the market share will look like.

As is known, these three state-owned airline companies have different services. Where Garuda is a full service type airline. This means that the services provided are fully starting from entertainment on an airplane, food and others.

The issuer with the stock code GIAA has its own market share which is loyal and has high service absorption.

Meanwhile, Citilink and Pelita Air are low-cost carrier airlines (LCC).

"It's still calculated, the class is still different. Whether Garuda's class will be at the top level, Pelita is in the middle, Citilink at the LCC doesn't know yet. See how it will be," he explained.

Arya said that the merger process would be carried out as soon as possible. The goal is for efficiency. So that the three airlines will be under one management.

"It's just for efficiency, one management. Yes (the target) as soon as possible," he said.